I implore you
to listen to the interview below. Paige is a gifted communicator
and my summary does not do him justice. He offers a number of
worthwhile tips and tricks that I was not able to capture in the
textual summary, so the 14-minute audio file is well worth your
time. Play it in the background while you otherwise remain
productive (or listen to it while you update your FB page, your
call).

“We save small to medium sized business anywhere to 15%
to 30% of what they buy already – snacks, meals, coffee for
employees in the office. We help companies reward their employees
with perks.

Perks are one of the most cost effective ways for a
company to recruit and retain employees. It’s not salary, it’s
the emotional connection of giving someone a gym membership, food
in the office.”

5) When I interviewed people at my past startups, I rejected
them if they asked me about our dental plan, as true
entrepreneurs don’t care about such pedestrian benefits. However,
our early employees loved the fact that we allowed them to bring
their dogs to work. How extensible do you see BetterWorks’
business model with later stage companies, where dental plans do
matter?

“We see two markets. When you are a bigger company, they
are not as cost sensitive…and (they) want to provide a ton of
services. We save you a ton of time. You don’t have to have three
benefit specialists managing vendors. Every single deal is
pre-negotiated.

When you have a hundred to five hundred employees, they
save a ton of time, the employees can pick exactly what they
want. Those companies are spending up to $300 per employee per
month. As an HR Manager, you don’t have to build a top down perks
program. You decide how much you want to invest in your employees
and then you give your employees the control to build a custom
perk package for themselves.

Smaller businesses gravitate to the cost
savings.”

4) What lessons from launching the Lincoln Group in Baghdad
in 2005 are transferable to today’s LA startup scene?

“The big thing I learned was go in with a big vision and
then execute day-to-day, knowing you don’t have the answers to
everything.

Every day, let’s learn from our customers, and I did that
in Iraq. You have to have a really small staff salute between the
service you are delivering and the people buying the
service.

You have to have a massive vision that can convince
bright people to join you and then every single day, every single
week, you have to learn from the people who are giving you their
hard earned dollars.”

3) I’ve heard some great stories about your weekend sales
“boot camps.” Please describe your approach and fill us in on
your results to date.

“We decided to hire people that were younger and are
trainable. We hired people who did not have outside sales
experience. And we hired folks who had previous leadership
positions and proof points of being competitive. Most of the
people…had positions in sports teams or fraternities.

We brought in 10 – 20 people in each class. In real-world
training scenarios (over two weeks), on the phone selling, we cut
75% of them. In that way, the people who made it feel they really
achieved something.100% of the folks (who survived the boot camps) are still
here. We quintupled our sales per sales person and reduced our
acquisition costs by 80% during that (boot camp)
period.”

2) Congratulations on Entrepreneur magazine recently naming
BetterWorks a “Brilliant
Company.” I am a huge fan of PR being done
in-house during a startup’s early stages. Do you have any PR tips
and tricks you can share with emerging entrepreneurs?

“In the early days, do it yourself. If you believe what
you are doing, you need to make yourself accessible…talk about
your business all the time.

Practice your message. In the early days, I talk to
thousands of people and every single conversation, I would learn
one or two things. Think of it as a snowball that keeps gets
bigger and better as you go forward.

Even if you uncomfortable, force yourself do it. Put
yourself into circles of people who will buy or who are a
stakeholder. Make yourself accessible. Don’t put (in) the layer
of an agency or a PR Specialist in the early days.”

1) In addition to running BetterWorks, you are also an Angel
Investor. In fact, we are co-investors inThe Resumator. What
must a startup do to motivate you to write them a check?

“For me, it comes down to the right people – I usually
invest in teams. So I am looking for a passionate team with a big
vision that knows how to execute. I have this manta of ‘think big
and execute small.’ I like big thinkers who, no matter how big
their vision, can sit down and talk to me about hour-to-hour,
day-to-day type stuff they do to move the ball forward.

Vision is the easiest one to understand. The execution
piece is harder, it takes time. If you have the luxury of time,
ideally you let that entrepreneur work with you over a period of
months and demonstrate unquestionably that they can execute.
Passion is a hard piece to. You can ask them about their past
experiences…but once again, if you have time (and) can watch them
demonstrate that passion, you are better off.

I encourage your readers join (BetterWorks), we’ll hook
them up with a discount. Just go to
www.betterworks.com.”